Last year I submitted a Connect item for SQL Server 2005 SP4. Quite a few people supported this item and voted for it, and Microsoft decided to build this last, final Service Pack for SQL Server 2005.
No timeline was given, but last week someone noticed that my Connect item had been changed to “closed” status, which to me is an indication that the Service Pack is getting close to being finished. I have no idea when this might be released, but I am guessing since we just passed the five year anniversary of the release of SQL Server 2005, it will be soon. I am sure Microsoft would like to get this finished, and move more people out of SQL Server 2005 support and into supporting newer products.
There are lots of people that run SQL Server 2005 instances. Actually I think there are lots of people still running SQL Server 2000 instances as well. These are mature products, and I understand that need to stop bug fixes for these products as time marches on. However I also think that we ought to finalize the products with a final rollup of the CUs and patches that is tested and deployable.
Not everyone can, or wants to upgrade, and the customers that did pay for those products deserve to have a full lifecycle of support. Which can be up to ten years after the original release of the product.
